“It was hotter when Jesus was alive” Abbott tells school children

Tony Abbot, perennial foot-in-mouth leader of the opposition, and climate change sceptic, gets climate science wrong again by telling children to be sceptical of climate science. His evidence?

He doesn’t cite any evidence, but he feels he understands the science well enough to tell a group of school children it was “hotter when Jesus was alive”.

Therefore, these kids should doubt climate change.

As reported by The Age:

TONY Abbott is under pressure to justify a claim to primary school students that it was considerably warmer when Jesus was alive than it is today.

The Opposition Leader urged year 5 and 6 students at Trinity Gardens Primary School in Adelaide to be sceptical about the human contribution to climate change, saying it was an open question.

During a question-and-answer session on Friday, Mr Abbott said that it was warmer ”at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth” than now.

Leading scientists said there was no evidence to suggest the globe was hotter 2000 years ago.Australian Academy of Science president Kurt Lambeck said true scepticism was fine, but required looking at published data with an open mind.

‘‘To make these glib statements to school students, I think, is wrong,” Professor Lambeck said.

”It’s not encouraging them to be sceptical, it’s encouraging them to accept unsubstantiated information.” Tas van Ommen, principal research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division, which collects climate data from ice cores, said any definitive statement about global temperatures 2000 years ago was ”completely unfounded”.

Perhaps there is an appropriate Biblical passage that states it was hotter? Or we should be using the Shroud of Turin to measure Christ’s carbon footprint? This whole thing about the Shroud being real or a fake is not the real issue: just how hawt was it in the Holy Land back then?

Mr. Abbot, there is no open question on the debate. The science is settled except for that tiny minority on (non climate) scientists and industry funded think tanks.

Note Mr. Abbot that Julius Caesar and Jesus did not live at the same time. Augustus was Emperor at the time of his birth, while Tiberius was ruled Rome at the time of Christ’s death. Caesar died decades earlier (born 100 BCE, died 44 BCE) .

Facts, facts, facts…. tish-tosh to those Mr. Abbot.

Let’s have a look at the actual historical record for global temperatures. Let’s have a look at a reconstruction of temperatures for the last 2000 years:

Not hotter then Mr. Abbott

That Abbot would attempt to mislead children is disgraceful.

Rather than let them understand the world they are going to grow up in, he would rather tell them a comforting fairy tale.